The goat with no horns in this picture is Rocky - future breeding buck. His family is Mikey - the larger goat next to him. Rocky and Mikey were both bottle fed. Goats will occasionally reject a new born by refusing to allow them to nurse - we don't often know why. Rocky was a puny little fellow but persistent. He tried every "mama possibility" in the pen . After watching the sad attempts and increasing weakness of the little guy -we stepped in and began the bottle feeding process (not a decision to be made lightly - it requires at least a 2 month commitment and we usually wean a little over 3 months). Mikey's mother was only able to nurse one baby although she gave birth to 3. When you bottle feed - the kids seem to develop a bond as if they were biological siblings. Now- almost 5 months later we have a real odd couple. Rocky is smaller, not as aggressive, hornless, but to Mikey - he is family. Rocky always makes me smile - he runs to us - ears looking like airplane wings and making funny chuckling noises.
Not far away will be Mikey -bleating like a small donkey - nosing around for a hidden bottle - he has not taken well to being weaned! Anyhow - those are the goat boys who give joy most of the time.
The goat with no horns in this picture is Rocky - future breeding buck. His family is Mikey - the larger goat next to him. Rocky and Mikey were both bottle fed. Goats will occasionally reject a new born by refusing to allow them to nurse - we don't often know why. Rocky was a puny little fellow but persistent. He tried every "mama possibility" in the pen . After watching the sad attempts and increasing weakness of the little guy -we stepped in and began the bottle feeding process (not a decision to be made lightly - it requires at least a 2 month commitment and we usually wean a little over 3 months). Mikey's mother was only able to nurse one baby although she gave birth to 3. When you bottle feed - the kids seem to develop a bond as if they were biological siblings. Now- almost 5 months later we have a real odd couple. Rocky is smaller, not as aggressive, hornless, but to Mikey - he is family. Rocky always makes me smile - he runs to us - ears looking like airplane wings and making funny chuckling noises. 
Not far away will be Mikey -bleating like a small donkey - nosing around for a hidden bottle - he has not taken well to being weaned! Anyhow - those are the goat boys who give joy most of the time.
2 comments:
What a beautiful place you had living in.
Glad you stopped by! Mikey and Rocky are safely in their pens for the night. Working on another posting about the rest of our critters and perhaps a few recipes. Drop by again sometime!
Linda Sue
Post a Comment